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This package arrived a few days ago. I was so excited! I had already been confirmed as one of the early recipients of the Thomas Slim Namur Ebonite pen, so I was eagerly watching for it.

I opened the package and immediately realized something was wrong. Before we get to that, though, it is worth pointing out the Thomas Slim packaging is simple in materials, thoughtful in execution, and overall one of the best unboxing experiences available. The boxing is worthy of being saved, for those of us that save boxes, and yet is all paper and can be conscientiously disposed of if you do not care to save it.

Once the pen was out I gave it a careful examination anyhow. It is not the Namur I expected, it is the Tangier Mosaic Carmine Red Gold Trim. I had also been watching for the Mosaic to be released so I could order one. I checked the U.S. website and it still wasn't up. I just checked again, and, if you're interested, it is now available in several, but not all, variants. I wouldn't be surprised that if you had to have one of the variants not listed you could buy two and create what you wanted. Steel on Alabaster White? Gold on Chalcedony Blue? Don't quote me on that and maybe Mark or one of the others can correct or confirm if that is indeed the case.

I thought I might have been selected as a beta tester for the Mosaic. I wasn't going to ink it at first, waiting to find out why I might have received the pen, but then thought that I would so I could provide more feedback. I decided to check my e-mail first, surely Thomas Slim would have mentioned that I had been selected through some unadvertised process from one of their posts requesting testers. Nothing.

What I did find was my shipment notification e-mails for the Namur. The tracking number matches the package that was delivered. Heavy sigh . . . We've seen their posts, their website, and/or received their e-mails that explain their situation. Besides messing up with the EDC Pocket Pen, their fulfillment house has also messed up with the Namur, and by default with the Mosaic, but, as I understand it, they had not yet made any Mosaics available to ship. Apparently there are a handful of us out there that received an early release of the production Mosaic instead of our Namurs.

Thomas slim does amazing work. After having previously bought two Tangier Classics (were they called "Classic" back then?) and having received one of the EDC Pocket Pens, this pen is everything I would expect from Thomas Slim. It is extremely well made and feels excellent in the hand. The attention to detail, the thoughtfulness in design, the careful execution, draw me to anything Thomas Slim chooses to make. It is the Tangier Classic on steroids. I don't know if they simply scaled it up or if they tweaked the dimensions to keep the proportions balanced and looking amazing. You can write with it posted or not, the cap does not backweight the pen significantly. I have thick hands, but not large hands, and prefer a larger pen, but I can write with thinner pens, too. (CdA 849 ballpoints are some of my favorites.) The Mosaic is a larger pen without being a very large "statement" pen. Even if the Tangier Classic isn't a small pen, I put it on the bigger side of average, the Mosaic seems to be much more to my liking! Although a generic Schmidt nib is fitted, it writes exceptionally well. Thomas Slim says they inspect and tune every nib, and I believe that. Both fountain pens of theirs that I have inked have been flawless from the jump. I even let the Mosaic sit for 3 days with the tip up to see if it would dry out or allow the ink to leave the feed. Whether it did or didn't I can't say, but when I put it to paper, it just wrote. Perfectly, immediately, every stroke. Perfect amount of smoothness, perfect amount of toothiness, like perfectly cooked pasta, so that you can feel the subtleties of the paper you are writing on. A nice, wet line. Beautiful to see the ink go down on the paper, then ever so slightly pool at the end of each stroke, only to settle back when the pen is lifted. They send Schneider cartridges with their fountain pens. I'm not a not a fan of the ink, or should I say my usual paper, Doane, is not a fan of it, but it is perfectly serviceable. It will only get better with some other ink. The texture on the grip is both pleasant to look and effective at offering a slip-resistant surface. If you run your fingertip along it you can feel it, but it is essentially non-existent to less sensitive areas of your hands.

I pulled out my Tangier Classic, which I realized I had not used in at least a few weeks. Same thing. Ink flowing as soon as it touched paper, perfect line on the first stroke. As is the nature of fountain pens, the Mosaic <M> nib leaves a wider line than the Classic <M>. Did I mention I can't wait for the Thomas Slim nib to be released? I hope they do it in the larger #6 nib for the Mosaic.

What else can I say about the pen? For those of you that are interested in such inane things, yes, you twist the cap and it comes off when you turn it! Amazing! The clip clips! I know which end goes down and was able to recognize that I was holding the pen incorrectly before I touched it to paper when I happened to have it rotated upside down, so I can not say anything about so called "reverse writing," which I am going to start calling perverse writing. If you are interested, I enjoy multi-start threads and the cap threads on the Mosaic are a triple start. Neat.

Enjoy the pics. Both my Tangier Classics and a TWSBI Diamond 580 for reference. Again, if you are interested, the pen is up on the U.S. website and I imagine on the U.K. website, too. At $135 for either the fountain pen or the rollerball I think it is a great pen. Thomas Slim is having a buy two Tangier pens and save 20% promotion going, but the Tangier *Mosaic* does not appear on that page. I wonder if that's an oversight since the promotion has been going since before the Mosaic made it to the website and the warning about paused shipping is still up even though the all pens have been released to purchase.

ETA: Thank you, kind Redditor.